The total lunar eclipse in Leo today (January 21) marks the final chapter in a 2-year story. Leo, ultimately, signifies the journey of the soul, through creative pursuits, and erotic adventure; learning through its many mistakes and inadvertent woundings of others, arriving eventually at its source, the wellspring of creative/erotic energy. The treasure of the epic Lion’s quest is the true and uninhibited expression of this raw vital energy, yet, tempered by the compassion Leo gains through its adventures and misadventures. In other words, Leo’s destination is authentic self expression.

The other night, I was overcome by this profound wave of emotion and knowing, inexplicable and unverifiable, yet undeniable, this feeling of: we are gonna fucking do this. It felt like, collectively, we hadn’t really decided if we are up for the challenge. We hadn’t really decided if we are willing to be fully in our bodies and to face the wreckage of the past thousands of years, to look squarely in the face of the carnage and brutality and trauma, and then to band together and to do all that it will take to move forward, to begin anew, to do better, to heal, to help each other, to rebuild—until now. I had this strong intuition that collectively, we’ve now decided. We’re gonna fucking do this.

Let’s gather together, loved ones. Let’s honour the darkness within, from where our vision grows, and let’s celebrate the return of the Sun, the lengthening of the days. More and more I feel like community is everything. How will we overcome? There is only one way. Together.

Is it getting louder, brighter, bigger? That’s Sagittarius. What a lift in the mood after Scorpio (even if Mercury and Venus are still there). Don’t get me wrong. I love Scorpio (actually, it’s my favourite). But we all need a break at some point. We’ve been underground for a while, and goddess, the sky is beautiful, now that we’ve come up for air.

Gemini holds the key to resisting dogmatism; its gift for curiosity. Curiosity keeps us engaged and lighthearted even in difficult times and enables opening to new ideas and ways of being. If we can be curious about perspectives other than our own, and about our own patterns and resistances, about what drives people, about how trauma shapes us, and so on, then we will be able to learn and grow from even pain. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it may just save this horse.

This Scorpio New Moon marks a new beginning in intimacy. As we come more and more into the knowing that we are not separate, we turn toward each other, we turn toward home. We see that our isolation was self-imposed. We accepted shame, that lethal gift, that lie, that holds us apart. And because we accepted it, we can lay it down now.

Now we know. We are intricately, intimately, entangled with every other being in existence, whether we wish it so or not. The universe is an open system. Every move, every breath, every thought, ripples through to infinity.

It’s time to come home. It’s time to come together.

We have a choice: stay stuck in this box, in this system, with all this injustice and inhumanity. In which case, humanity may not make it. Or to break open the box. But what is outside of it? We can’t possibly know. We’ve been held in this box for so long. We hate it in here, but we’re used to it. It’s all we know. So, this is the choice we face: to stick with what we know or to face the unknown, where maybe, just maybe we will find freedom.

We have been told that anger is violence. We have been taught that anger is unbecoming. We have been led to believe that anger is not spiritual. When in reality the guise of false peace that passes for our societies is brutal. “Peace” is the true brutality. Anger is love. Rage is the right response to the realization of our collective history. If you are not angry you are complicit in the oppression and the continuation of the violent structures of old.

We may feel pulled in three directions: self, other, and our obligations and responsibilities. Creatively tending to and integrating all three is the secret to mastering this moment. This Full Moon may surface some tension, but there is enormous potential here for overcoming harmful habits and patterns, for moving in a different way, for choosing something new, and in so doing, healing.

Virgo seeks the impossible; perfection. It does so through a process of analysis, applied internally as well as externally. Coming after the sign of Leo, which, when imbalanced, can become self-absorbed, Virgo cuts the ego down to size, in order to embody humility. As such, Virgo is the master of self-questioning, of a thorough internal analysis designed to improve the self.

The Pisces Full Moon is exact on Sunday August 26th at 4:46am PST at 3 degrees of Pisces. With no hard aspects to the Sun or Moon, this is one of the gentlest lunations we’ve had in a while. (Has it been an intense summer, or what?) Pisces represents our personal connection to spirituality, whatever that is. It is creative and intuitive, and helps us to get out of our egos to experience something beyond ourselves.

The Partial Solar Eclipse in Leo signals another chapter in a story that began in the winter of 2017 and will conclude next winter (2019). The eclipse is conjunct the asteroid Pallas Athene, which represents creative vision and social activism as contained in a holistic practice. “She teaches the wisdom that the mind’s eye contains the seed of manifested form,” (George, 1986, p 32) and so governs the mysterious process of creation, from idea to physical form to social consequence.